BioSIM welcomes a new visiting PhD student, João N. D. Gonçalves, from the Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Programme from the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS-UP). João has a MSc in Applied Biochemistry and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Minho. The focus of his PhD project is to design and develop novel fluorescent nucleoside derivatives with improved photophysical and biochemical properties to specifically tag intracellular compartments in living organisms, as well as assess their pharmacological potential based on their affinity to different players of the purinome. This work will be conducted under the supervision of Rui Oliveira (CBMA, UMinho), Alice Dias (CQ-UM, UMinho), and Paulo Correia de Sá (LFN/MedInUP, ICBAS-UP), and in collaboration with Sérgio Sousa (BioSIM, FMUP).
His mobility period at the BioSIM will involve the application of computational tools to predict targets for the recently developed fluorescent nucleoside derivatives and evaluate binding interactions. Moreover, the design and development of new derivatives with improved binding potential and photophysical properties for bioimaging and pharmacological applications will also be sought out.